Adrienne

Where exactly in Glenfield Josh as ime it can go all the way to Beachlands and when does the auction close. If its a buy now and I can collect before Friday you are in with a chance as I have to go to Botany on Friday.

Fantastic - I'm so delighted that someone (you) managed to keep a pair alive long enough to breed. How many fry?

send a pm to HandS In the club section he says that the club is displaying tanks so he will know if they are going to have any.

More great pics

which pet expo?

I realise that the type of substrate can alter the pH but I can't understand the following Given that these are solids which do not have a pH there is no guarantees that this is what the pH will be after they are added to the tank. I would think it will be dependent on the quantity. Both of them will certainly alter the pH once added to water and heres hoping it does end up at about 8.

Don't know a lot about eels but I do know that if there is a gap between lid and tank they can get out of it, in fact if there is no gap they can still get out of it.

I'm pretty sure that if you use the search button (on the right hand side of this page) and type in kh etc you will find all the information and discussions you can possibly need to help you with this part of your question.

Please take a note of what Donna is saying. You may not know but she is the person who ends up looking after and spending vast amounts of her own time and money rescuing abandoned, sick and injured turtles through out NZ and nursing them back to health In my own experience my nephew purchased a turtle several years ago. It was tiny and he put it in a 3ft tank with a fluval 4 internal filter (both of which are bigger than what you have). Within a few months it was too big for the tank and too fat to be healthy because he fed it more than he should. He gave it back to the pet shop. I have now seen too many pics of rotting turtle shells, puss etc pouring out of turtles to recommend that anyone purchase a turtle before they spend the money to buy exactly what they are going to need to keep their pet healthy and happy.

Solids do not have a pH, only liquids. My thoughts are that the grit will bring your pH up to 9.5 while the limestone rock will only raise it to 6. The limestone rock may bring the level down a bit from 9.5. You will need to test it to find out.

The only thing that does not add up is how high your ammonia was instantly on cleaning your tank. It should not have shown up immediately unless it was already present at a high level. However I have had a similar problem earlier this year which killed off most of my discus eventually and I put it down to the hose I was using for the water change. Maybe there is something present in the water in Auckland?

Yes, cleaning out the whole fx5 in tap water will have killed off the good bacteria. IMO with a tank that size depending on your stocking I would think you will have to keep a watch on it for 3 -4 weeks. Your other readings will change as well while the tank is cycling. With my fx5 I tend to rinse out one of the 3 filter baskets totally once every 8 - 10 weeks and rinse the others out in water from my tank. Your saving grace I think has been the fact that your pH has stayed low and thats why the fish are still okay (assuming they are). Adding something like prime will certainly help neutralise the ammonia while the cycling is in progress but with a tank that size it might depend on your finances. Good luck - keep asking questions if you get stuck or need more assistance. There are many on this forum way more experienced than I with problems of this kind.

Would you go and do your tests again. This time test pH, ammonia, nitrates and nitrite and then post the readings. When you do your tests follow to the absolute, the instructions re timing of shaking of tubes, shaking of additives and how long to leave the test to stand as this can have an impact on the end results. Do you have fish in the tank atm? How are they acting? When you say 'took everything out of the tank' do you just mean logs and ornaments or do you mean more? Did you do anything to the filter on this clean?

Sorry Trav but your first post doesn't make a lot of sense. Was it a tank you emptied out completely to clean and refill? Was it a tank you did a water change on? If it was a completely new set up there is no way the ammonia would read that high immediately but if it was a tank you did a water change on what was the ammonia before you changed it? At that high an ammonia reading its a wonder some of your fish were not dead. How old is your test kit?

My son has one through his work and he finds it fantastic. Much lighter and easier than lumping his laptop around - he just carries the ipad and logs into his laptop.

Does anyone have Caseys cellphone no.? If so would you please pm it to me. I am supposed to be going to his house tomorrow morning but need to know what time will suit him and he must be busy today and hasn't answered my pm's. Thanks in advance

You certainly do.

Thanks I was being nosey because I know you can't tell how many fish are in a planted tank. SamH and Joshlikesfish came in and looked at my tank today and all they could see were the school of harlequins and a few of the bolivian rams when in fact there are about 30+ others in there.

Often by the time you notice it it is fairly advanced and in red/orange fish is harder to spot the tell tale streaks. You could add salt to the tank but I don't know enough about otos to know if they can handle it. Maybe someone else may know.

Would you list the fish you have in the tank? How many? Trying to work out what you have

Looks great! My red plant doesn't go as red as yours. How deep is your tank? Mine is 60cm and even though the plant has grown to the top its not as dark a red. PS - picked up the diffuser today and its happily bubbling away in the tank. What do you use to spread the bubbles even more?

Post Haste here in Penrose is great. With the 40hour heat pads they have to be opened up and left to warm before packing. They need oxygen as Barrie says to keep them running and they can not get water on them or they do not work. I double heat pack in the winter and put one at the bottom of the box with a small piece of poly to stop it touching the plastic bags but not so big a piece of poly that the air can't circulate around it. The other I put at the other end of the box at the end of the bags again with poly to stop it touching the plastic. When I arrive at the depot I poke a small hole in the top of the poly box with a pen to allow a small flow of air to get into the container. This time of year is always dubious for sending as the depots can get very very cold at night and early morning deliveries to small towns can make the boxes sit outside in the frosts. Some heat packs don't work unless they are laid a certain way in the box either i,e, one particular side has to be the side away from a flat surface.

Yes they do. They are also less than 20 metres away from the NZC depot :roll:

Poste haste charges $13.50 overnight to Wanganui, Fastways charges $35 for the same sized package overnight.

yes to fin rot. Treatment varies depending on what other sorts of fish you have in the tank. Clean water really really helps. Let us know what else is in the tank.